1.55" Oligocene Fossil Marine Smelt (Glossanodon) - Poland

This is a 1.55" wide fossil fish of the species Idrissia carpathica (Jerzmanska, 1960) preserved on a slab of stone. It comes out of the nannofossil biozone NP24 of the Krosno Formation Unit near Sobniów, Poland. Beautiful bone preservation on this specimen.


The species Glossanodon musceli is assigned to this extinct marine smelt, or argentine (family Argentinidae), a family known for their large schools close to the sea floor. They feed on plankton, especially krill, amphipods, small cephalopods, chaetognaths, and ctenophores.

You can read more about the ichthyofaunal ecostratigraphy of the Oligocene-Early Miocene strata of the Polish Outer Carpathian basin, here.

http://www.asgp.pl/sites/default/files/volumes/76_1_001_111.pdf